Dravidacris annamalaica gen. et sp. nov. a new pygmy unicorn grasshopper (Orthoptera: Tetrigidae) from South India

Abstract

A new pygmy unicorn genus, Dravidacris Bhaskar et Kasalo, gen. nov., and its single species D. annamalaica Bhaskar et Kasalo sp. nov. are described, restricted to the Eastern coast of Tamil Nadu, one of the southern states of India. Dravidarcis gen. nov. is a unique pygmy grasshopper genus with its long, elevated, and projected vertex. Long and dorsally extended flat fastigium of Dravidacris gen. nov. is similar to that of Pseudomitraria from Africa, Rostella from SE Asia, and Indomiriatra from India. However, those species are different and are not closely related. The new genus is easily separated from the genera mentioned above by the shape of the horn, the way the horn is developed, the expression of medial and median carinae, and the shape of the anterior margin of the pronotum. The implications of differing horn morphologies are discussed, and some taxonomic comments are offered.

Grasshoppers, Crickets and Katydids of Kerala, an updated checklist for the order Orthoptera

“…Notable taxonomic works on Indian Orthoptera were done by Kirby (1914), Hancock (1915), Uvarov ( , 1929, Hebard (1929), , Chopard (1969), Tandon (1976) and Bhowmik (1977Bhowmik ( , 1985. Many other significant works on Orthoptera were conducted in various states of India (Tandon and Shishodia, 1977;Vasanth, 1993;Tandon and Hazra, 1998;Shishodia, 1999Shishodia, , 2000Chitra et al, 2000;Shishodia and Kulkarni, 2002;Dey and Hazra, 2003;Thakur et al, 2004;Kulkarni and Shishodia, 2005;Senthilkumar et al, 2006;Senthilkumar, 2010;Usmani et al, 2010;Nayeem and Usmani, 2012;Akhtar and Usmani, 2014;Kumar and Usmani, 2015;Bhaskar et al, 2022). Significant studies on Orthopterans fauna of Kerala were done by Hazra (1986), Vasanth (1991), Shishodia and Kulakrni (2002), Priya and Naredran (2003), Prabakar and Radhakrishnan (2005), Bhaskar et al (2018Bhaskar et al ( , 2019, Meena et al (2021), Hiremath and Prathapan (2021) and Jaiswara et al (2021Jaiswara et al ( , 2022.…”

“…E. tricarinatus Kerala Shishodia et al (2010), Gupta and Chandra (2020), Cigliano et al (2023) Subfamily CLADONOTINAE Bolívar, 1887;Tribe Cladonotini Bolívar, 1887Genus Deltonotus Hancock, 1904 107. Deltonotus gibbiceps (Bolívar, 1902) Palakkad (Silent Valley NP, Parambikulam TR), Idukki (Eravikulam NP) Shishodia and Hazra (1986), Shishodia and Kulkarni (2002), Mathew (2004), Shishodia et al (2010), Chandra and Gupta (2013), Bhaskar et al (2018Bhaskar et al ( , 2019Bhaskar et al ( , 2020cBhaskar et al ( , 2022, Gupta and Chandra (2020) Chopard (1969), Hazra (1986), Vasanth (1991), Mathew (2004), Shishodia et al (2010), Bhaskar et al (2018), Gupta and Chandra (2020) Thrissur Mathew (2004), Cigliano et al (2023) and questions the underestimated number of total Orthoptera species in the entire country given the uniqueness of the biodiversity in the Indian subcontinent and the relative lack of taxonomic expertise.…”